


even when things go wrong

by imaginarypasta



Series: as there is life [4]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: (with some notable changes discussed in the text), EXCEPT cold powers and the summer camp episode, Father-Son Relationship, Mother-Son Relationship, season 3 is irrelevant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:47:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22015090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginarypasta/pseuds/imaginarypasta
Summary: The Fentons try to fix their strained relationship -- a sequel to "as their is life there is danger."
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Jack Fenton, Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton, Danny Fenton & Maddie Fenton
Series: as there is life [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1581622
Comments: 7
Kudos: 184





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hope y'all enjoy! this takes place directly after "if you're willing to open your heart" (though it's not necessary to read it) and is a sequel to "as there is life there is danger." i'm thinking it's going to be a bit different, as it's more about the fentons actively trying to better their relationships with each other.

Dash didn’t stick around long. For a moment, Danny considered making sure he got home safely. But his breath was still warm and the sky was getting dark quickly, so he instead rushed home, where Jazz was flipping through a magazine on the couch.

“Want to play a round of something on the Xbox?” she asked, even though he was still invisible. Danny was never particularly quiet, not unless he was sneaking out, but he definitely wasn’t loud. She still always managed to notice him; he wondered how many times she’d just said something aloud to herself, thinking he was there, and laughed. He dropped invisibility and his ghost form as he fell onto the sofa from a few feet in the air. Jazz lost her balance and her magazine fell to the ground, but she didn’t say anything.

“Are Mom and Dad still working?”

“No, they both went out for a meeting,” she said, getting up to turn on the Xbox. “Did you finish your winter assignments?”

Danny shrugged. “More or less.”

She frowned at him. The controller was in her hand, but as he reached for it, she pulled away. “Maybe you should wait until you finished your homework.”

“Come on, Jazz,” he whined. “It’s only a few worksheets. And I have all break.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Procrastination isn’t a good habit to get into.”

He scoffed. “I’m not sure I can stop _now_.” Jazz sighed, looking like she wanted to say more, but collapsed onto the couch beside him and surrendered the controller.

“One game,” she said. “And then go do your homework.”

After the round, Jazz turned off the television. Danny asked from behind her, “What time are they supposed to get home?”

She shrugged, “Didn’t say. Now go do your worksheets.”

“Do you think they’ll close the freeway because of snow like last year? It was looking pretty cold out there… Do we have enough money for delivery if Mom and Dad can’t get home? Because I’m _not_ eating your cooking ever again.”

“They didn’t go to the university.”

“Oh?”

“They went to meet with your teachers.”

“Oh.” They were both quiet for a minute, Jazz with searching for something around the living room.

“I just had it…” she muttered to herself.

“What are you looking for?”

“My magazine,” she said, exasperated. “I swore I put it down before I started the game.”

“It’s here on the table,” he said. She turned and he pulled back before she could grab it.

“What?”

“Why were they talking to my teachers?”

Her eyes lowered to the ground. “They didn’t really say…”

“I’m sure you know anyway.”

“Danny-”

“Come on, Jazz. Just tell me.”

She gave him a tired look. “They’re thinking about putting you in summer classes. So you can get your grades up before you apply for colleges.”

“What? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because it’s not for sure yet and-”

“If I’m in classes, I won’t have any time for ghost hunting!” He could hear the anger in his own voice.

“ _And_ ,” she continued. “I knew it would make you mad.” She grabbed the magazine from him while he was distracted with self-pity. “It’s not for sure yet. They just want to see what they can do to help.”

“I don’t see the point.”

Jazz sighed. “I can’t say I didn’t see _that_ coming. You should really talk to them about this. They’ll probably be home soon. It’s been a while; I can’t imagine they’d stay out much longer.”

“Jazz, please-”

“I really don’t have any say in this, Danny. I’m sorry.” Danny’s eyes flicked to the door. He could just go right now, take off and fly until his lips went dry and he wasn’t mad anymore. “Come on, don’t leave. It’s dark and you’ll get in trouble if you’re still out.”

She was right, of course. “Fine.” He stomped up to his room instead.


	2. Chapter 2

By the time his parents had gotten home, Danny had finished his winter homework. It really hadn’t been that much, but he did have to keep asking Jazz for help, much to his embarrassment. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed in school while fighting ghosts.

He’d moved to fiddling around on his computer, flicking through ghost files and strategizing as best he could. That was Jazz’s advice; he much preferred raw, in-the-moment decisions. They always worked better for him than remembering countless plans for any number of eventualities. That all made his head spin.

As Maddie walked in, he clicked out of the application out of habit, moving effortlessly to Myspace. She slid a hand onto his shoulder, a hand that paralleled too much contact these last few days. Maddie and Jack had apparently gotten it into their heads that they needed to reaffirm their love for him through physical contact, which meant way too many hugs for Danny’s constantly injured body. What he really needed was a whole bunch of ice packs.

“Hi, Danny.” She placed a kiss on the top of his head; he could hardly feel it through his mop of hair. “How was your day? Did you get a lot of exercise?”

“Sure, I guess.” That was another thing; his parents had decided to refer to his ghost fighting with all sorts of ridiculous euphemisms. It was exercise, a hobby, extracurricular — everything _but_ what it actually was. It was kind of jarring since it _was_ their profession and all. They’d taken to calling _that_ ecto-biology. It was all about the scientific study now, none of that “fighting nonsense.” Years of passion, seemingly forgotten overnight. He supposed he should be flattered or something.

“And Jazz said you were home before dark. I’m proud of you. Your dad and I brought McDonald's home for dinner. Why don’t you come eat with us?” It wasn’t like he had any excuse, so he reluctantly agreed.

At the table, Jack and Jazz were already seated, having an animated discussion about something Danny couldn’t pinpoint. Maddie gave them a guarded smile as she entered, and Jazz’s demeanor shifted. Things had been awkward between them since Danny came out.

“Danno! How was your day?” Jack asked as they sat down and passed out everyone’s food.

“It was good, Dad.”

“Aww, great. What made it good?” He shrugged at the attempt to get him to open up; he hadn’t yet become partial to the idea that his parents would want to know about the ins-and-outs of his ghost fighting. Especially when that coupled with not really wanting to acknowledge it. Jazz recommended they get a family therapist, but the rest of them vehemently disagreed.

Their conversation was light and superficial until, about midway through their meal, Maddie finally said, “We went and spoke to some of your teachers today, Danny.” He stopped eating his third hamburger — one of the perks of telling his parents the truth was that they no longer questioned why he was eating so much — and feigned shock.

"Aren't they on break?"

"They're working on final grades, apparently. We got a few strings pulled so we could meet with them."

“Why?” he asked carefully.

“We were actually talking to them about your grades. See, we were thinking you could start taking some credit recovery classes.”

Danny set his hamburger down and subconsciously poked some fries into the pool of ketchup along the side of the wrapper.

At his silence, she continued, “Some of them will be for a few hours after school, and others will just be in summer.”

He sent Jazz a murderous look. “You said-” he started, but stopped himself. Maddie glanced between them with narrowed eyes.

“Did you two already talk about this?”

“No,” Danny shouted at the same time Jazz said, “Yes.”

“Jazz, how did you even know?” she spat.

“It was pretty obvious,” Jazz said and shrugged.

Maddie exhaled loudly and turned back to Danny. “Sweetie, I know it’ll cut into your free time, but it’ll be good for you. You know, you’ll start to have a really structured routine, and it’ll increase your chances of getting into colleges.”

“Yeah,” Jack added. “Look at Jazz; she’ll be on her way to Yale or Harvard or wherever she wants in no time. Acceptances will be rolling in any day now. Don’t you want your pick of the future?”

Jazz slumped down in her seat, a movement unacknowledged by their parents. Danny raised an eyebrow at her. She’d gotten tens of college acceptances in the last few weeks; he hadn’t realized that she had yet to tell their parents. Sure, they weren’t Ivy Leagues — good grades didn’t mean much when you spent all your free time following around your brother and his friends while they fight ghosts — but they were good schools, and she’d gotten enough money in scholarships to pay her way through at least the first year. Danny wasn’t sure a few improved grades would help where his sister’s perfect academic record was subpar. And then there were his “hobbies” to think of.

“I’m just not seeing the point,” he said.

“Your future!” Maddie and Jack exclaimed at once.

“I know it seems tedious,” Maddie said, “but it really will be worth it, Danny. Now that we know what’s really going on, we can actually do something,” Maddie said.

“But before it was fine?” he demanded.

Maddie made an uncomfortable face. “Well, no, but we figured you were just in a funk. That you’d grow out of it.”

“So, what? You thought I was depressed or whatever so it was fine then?” His parents were both making eye contact with their dinners. Jazz gave him a look that said, _Don’t go down this road_. He’d hurt them, so he’d have to get off this train of conversation. “What about ghost fighting?” he asked.

His parents exchanged an uncomfortable glance and Maddie continued, “Your extracurriculars will have to come second. I’m sorry. But you’re barely going to graduate, and we just can’t keep letting you do this. You’re throwing away your future.”

“This _is_ my future,” Danny argued.

“Danno, you have the world ahead of you, son. There’s no need to limit yourself to-”

“If I don’t fight ghosts, I’ll die,” he said bluntly. “I’m staying here my whole life. I don’t have a choice.”

And they knew he wasn’t just saying it for dramatic effect. He didn’t actually know if he would _die_ per se, but leaving his obsession unfulfilled would at least make him suffer some serious consequences, if his parents were to be believed. It was something that their newly careful eye on his timetable was carefully skirting around, but this would really make things difficult for him. Right now, he was just getting headaches — mind-numbingly painful, overwhelming headaches, but still just headaches. And they went away as soon as he could go out for the day. Going back to school would make things worse, but if he were to follow his new curfew _and_ spend so much time at school, that really might send him over the edge.

They were quiet long enough that Danny got fed up with the silence and left the table in a huff.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooh sorry about the really long time between chapters i've like had school. anyway enjoy

He’d just gone to his room, aimlessly floating around, picking up things and throwing them around, racing himself to catch them before they could fall. A knock sounded on the door and he dropped to the floor to open it. Jazz leaned against the doorframe with a sad look in her eye.

“Can I come in?” she asked, and he stepped aside to let her walk through. He leaned up against his headboard while she sat on the edge of his bed, facing away from him.

“Danny,” Jazz sighed after a moment. “You’re not a lost cause.”

“Who said I was a lost cause?” he asked, suddenly on the defense.

“No one. But I know you were thinking it.” She spared a glance at his pouting face. “Maybe not in so many words.” She raised her head from where it hung at her shoulders. “You don’t have to stay here forever.”

“I don’t have a choice, Jazz. If I go too long without fighting ghosts, I get sick. And that’s after only a little bit. Months at a time? I don’t know what would happen. And then there’s...” He pulled the blankets around him, covering his head like a cloak.

“There’s what?” she prompted. 

“It’s just… if I get too far away from the portal, I get really sick. Like melting skin and burning up sick.”

“You’ve never mentioned that before.”

“Yeah, I know. It only happened once, at camp last summer. That’s why I came home early. I’m not even sure that’s why it happened, but…”

“I wish you’d told me,” she said. He shrugged. “But I’m serious. There are options for you. Wisconsin, for one.”

“You mean live with  _ Vlad _ ?”

“Well, I meant go to school there so you’re still close enough to ghosts. You don’t actually have to live with him. Or even talk to him.”

Danny shrugged and threw the blankets off himself so they landed on the floor. “I just don’t know why I feel like this.”

“You have plenty of time, Danny,” Jazz said, tilting her head. “You don’t have to decide right now. Mom and Dad just want to help you keep your options open.”

He was hoping she would just tell him why he felt like this. “I feel like time is all I have,” he mumbled. He stood to pick the blankets off his floor and gently pushed Jazz off as he remade the bed. She was watching him with her arms crossed and eyebrow cocked; he could see her lip trembling out of the corner of his eye.

It took some courage, but he asked, “Why didn’t you tell Mom and Dad about getting into college?”

Her eyes went wide for a moment, then quickly reset themselves. “I j-just… you all have a lot on your p-plates right now,” she stammered.

He raised an eyebrow at her.

“R-really. Things were rough when they started coming in, with them finding out about Phantom and I just… I didn’t think I needed to make it all about me.” She returned to her spot on the bed as Danny pulled his legs into the air to sit at her height.

“Thanks, I guess. But you should tell them. You can’t put your whole life on hold for me.”

Her expression said that she definitely could and would, but he didn’t press her further.

“D’you think they’re gonna make me do the after school classes?” he asked. “I think I can probably manage the summer ones but if they still make me do curfew…”

“I’ll talk to them about it.” He gave her a funny look. “What?”

“Nothing,” he shrugged and fell to the floor. He began pacing around the room.

Jazz sighed and bit the edge of her thumb. “Maybe you should go for a walk.” 

“Why?” He looked at her quizzically as he floated into the air and began fixing a poster that had fallen down his wall. “Mom and Dad’ll kill me.”

“I’ll cover for you then.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re really antsy right now," she answered.

He stopped fixing the stars taped on his ceiling to put them into new constellations. “No I’m not.”

“ _ Danny _ ,” she hissed. “Will you just go?”

“Will you tell them about the letters?” 

“Is this blackmail?”

“I don’t think so?” he said, though he sounded like he wasn’t sure. 

She sighed. “Fine.”

“Right now.”

“Eventually.”

“Eventually in the next ten minutes.”

“You were literally  _ just  _ fighting with them. Give it, like,  _ a  _ second.”

He blew his bangs out of his eyes. “Fine.”


End file.
